I Spent $8,857 Using Claude Code to Build 6 Projects. Here's What I Learned.

I Spent $8,857 Using Claude Code to Build 6 Projects. Here's What I Learned.

Not a sales pitch. I just noticed there's almost no deep-use experience with Claude Code on Dev.to or Reddit — mostly "look I built a todo app" posts. After burning through nearly nine grand, I have some real data to share.

The Numbers

14 days. $8,857.62. 3.884 billion tokens. 47,235 API requests. All on Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context window).

You probably think I'm insane. Honestly, when I saw the bill after week one, I panicked a little too. But here's the math: I was pushing 6 projects simultaneously, 2 of which were full-stack production apps. At freelance rates of $150/hr, these projects represent 4-5 weeks of work.